


Shining in the Starlight

by CycloneRachel



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Friendship, Gap Filler, Gen, Impersonation, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, One Shot, except... Not - Freeform, set between 4x13 and 4x15, spoilers for 4x16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 13:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18235490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: Linda knows who her enemy is.However, during a chance encounter, knowing said enemy becomes a far more personal matter.





	Shining in the Starlight

Linda was meant to destroy Kara Danvers.

She was the pretender, the Daughter of Krypton who’d lost her way and become too human, the one who’d attached herself too strongly to this world, and grown strong under the yellow sun just like Linda had.

But America had corrupted Kara, poisoned her like Kryptonite in her veins, and so Linda had to intervene. Show the world what the woman who wore her face could truly do, and how powerful she could be without anything holding her down.

That was what Alex told her. From the moment he met her, he was teaching her- and though he hadn’t been there during all of her training, he’d been there in spirit. Giving her food, at first, and then books. So many books, meant to give her lessons about what she should know, and what was wrong with everything else.

However, that was before she and Alex visited America, or more specifically National City. The place Kara Danvers held dear, though with her experience in the city, Linda had no idea why. It was just like the rest of America, it blended in- which was why, perhaps, Kara had chosen it, as she was doing the same thing. Linda, just like her, adopted a disguise- although unlike Kara, she never once believed it was a part of her. It was simply another skin, and she could shed it at any time.

But while she and Alex were inside Kara’s apartment, she found she was better at wearing it than she’d thought.

“How was that?” she asked, after Alex- _other Alex, pretender Alex_ \- had left.

“You can do better.” Alex- _her Alex, protector Alex_ \- said, and handed her Kara’s journal. “Like I said, you may need to become her someday- and I see no better way of doing so than reading this. Learn about her friends, her… family.”

“And your sister.”

“And my sister. But this is not about them- this is about _her_ , and figuring out how to take her down for good.”

“I understand.” Linda answered.

So she curled herself up on the couch, wrapped in a red blanket- a comforting color, for her- and read about Kara. About her experiences since she’d first taken residence in this city. There was one journal for each year she’d been there, which was helpful, even though most of the important information- about Supergirl- was in the one she had held when talking to Kara’s Alex, and three previous ones.

She read each journal just as quickly as the books- but, as her Alex had told her, she was meant to absorb them. Learn everything she could from them, in an attempt to know Kara as well as herself.

So she read them again, and again, and again, taking note of the names that kept coming up. She knew Alex, of course, and Lena. But some of these other names- _James, J’onn, Winn_ in the first three, more recently _Brainy_ and _Nia_ among those she counted as her friends- were foreign to her.

Which was why, of course, she had to ask the one who’d helped her understand so much in the first place.

“Alex?” she asked, hearing him barely suppress a groan.

“Yes?”

“Kara mentions people I do not know, in these journals. And when I looked at her fridge, I saw two names, beside hers and Alex’s- James and Brainy. Who are they?”

Alex only appeared amused at the first one, but raised an eyebrow at the second.

“Did you say ‘Brainy’?”

“Yes- starting in Journal Three, page one hundred fifteen. She refers to him as “Brainy”, yet she also notes that he called himself… “Querl Dox?” As well as “Brainiac 5”, before she was told that his friends called him “Brainy”, and it seems that they were friends, seeing how many times that name appears in this journal and the other.”

“Brainiac _5_ …” Alex said, eyes lighting up. “Interesting. Quite interesting. Pay attention to that name, and what Kara mentions he’s doing. He may be… important.”

 _Dangerous. Expendable._ He thought. _But also perhaps useful, if needed._

“Important enough for me to meet him in person?”

“Perhaps.” Alex answered. “But first you will need to learn all Kara has written on him.”

“Do you know this man?” Linda said. “Is that why you’re interested in him?”

“Not exactly. But close.”

“Close like Philip and Alexander?”

“Something along those lines, yes. It’s difficult to explain- but even I don’t know the whole story behind this “Brainiac 5” she speaks of.”

“I cannot imagine you not knowing something.” Linda answered.

“Then your imagination is not as great as it could be.” Alex said. “Keep reading, and we’ll talk again very soon.”

Linda nodded, and returned to the journals.

She wasn’t attached to any of the people Kara talked about. For her, they were as good as fictional- and she could pretend they weren’t real, just like almost everyone else she’d read the stories of.

But they were all too real, especially those who seemed to surprise even Alex, and reading them might as well have been reading war manuals.

Which, in a fashion, she was- and they were proving themselves quite proficient at allowing her to learn her enemy.

 _Soon, Kara Danvers,_ she thought. _Soon we will meet- and I will have the advantage._

_Soon, I will use that knowledge to take away everything you love._

_Soon, you will not only have my face- I will be you._

And more and more often, she was testing herself with that, seeing how good at being Kara she already was, whether with Kara’s sister or Alex’s.

But with someone new, someone she hadn’t been told about…

It was a test worthy of Alex himself.

~

She opened Kara’s door to him, and he spun around, before greeting her- his dark eyes landed on hers, and he examined her closely as she slowly smiled at him.

“Kara.” He said. “I assume you used supersonic speed to get here? Through the window?”

“Oh! Uh, yeah. Definitely.” Linda answered. “You know me, always, um, doing that.”

“Yes… if I had my ring, I would certainly travel the same way.”

“Your-“

“My flight ring, Kara. Have I never told you what it’s capable of, other than the obvious ability of flight?”

“No… you told me your name, and that you were a member of the Legion, but besides that, no.”

“First of all, I still am a member of the Legion.” Brainy insisted. “I am only… on furlough, so to speak. And second, this ring- my ring- allows us to communicate with one another. It has many other capabilities, of course, that I’m sure would bore you before long. Most people would be- bored, that is, by the explanation- but suffice it to say, this is probably my proudest invention.”

“Because it signifies that you are unified with your teammates.” Linda answered. “Your comrades.”

“Well. _Comrade_ isn’t exactly the word I would have used, but- yes. And since it has been stolen…”

“You feel lost. And you have no link to your future.”

“Yes- you remembered!”

Querl smiled, as she recited the words Kara had written him saying, but it didn’t take long until he looked upset again.

“Then again, that is not the best thing for me to remember, at this point.” He answered. “I must instead remember that my friends are in the thirty-first century, keeping it safe while I cannot. They’re performing what should be my job… but it can't be. And no amount of time travel will change the past in a completely successful way. So…”

“You are stuck here.” Kara finished, as both of them found their way to the couch. “But I do not believe it is a bad thing. Remember when I showed you this painting, Brainy?”

She pointed at the one most prominently on display, and Querl nodded.

“You thought it looked like a- a disruption.” She answered. “The anomaly that transported you in time. However, you can imagine that it means something else.”

“I can?”

“Yes.” Kara said. “This dark area, here- it’s your own personal disruption. All the things holding you back. And this area here?”

“Yes?”

“That’s your light. Your hope, that you _will_ be alright, and you can put this behind you.”

“I can only hope so.” Brainy answered.

“And you should- because that hope shines brighter than the disruption. You are stronger than your fears, Querl Dox. Even if all you see is darkness, you can still be light. And you are.”

“Well-put.” He said. Then, his phone buzzed in his pocket.

“Oh.” He answered, as he checked it. “A text message- I must go. Have a good day, Kara.”

“You too, Brainy!”

She pushed the door behind him, and turned around, slumping against it as the door finally closed.

“I cannot believe I had to help him.” Linda said, in the comfort of her own privacy. “However… once I can abandon this disguise…”

_Once I abandon this disguise, I will make sure that Kara’s friends- especially those who are alien- die knowing they were under the pretender’s spell.  
And that I was not impersonating her to trick them- I wanted them to be saved. To see the light._

Evidently, what she told Querl was some advice she needed to follow herself.


End file.
